Roskov book 17, p.21
Roskov, Book 17, page 21
With some sunburn being felt we headed back but slowly, enjoying the boat ride, dolphins again seen. Rolf and Ingrid headed to reception to see if they could use the hotel’s computers, and if the hotel had a good speed dial-up modem.
Rolf reported to me an hour later that eleven copyright-free publicity photos had been sent out to the usual outlets, and that the best images of Gabrielle and Olga had been zip compressed and sent to our printer in Sweden, to send on to Germany.
Decker arrived at 9pm and found us in the bar chatting to hotel guests, and the Canadian family we had met joined us at our invite, group photos taken.
I found a room for Decker, and he would be comfy if just for one night. At the bar he ordered a meal and a cold beer, Bill and Ted sat with him and picking his brains on security matters.
Stood with the Canadian father, he explained, ‘The most expensive part of a yacht is the engine, so check the engine logs before you buy it, and they don’t come cheap.
‘Rest of the yacht is cheaper to fix, and you have insurance like a car anyhow. Where most boat owners lose money is in docking fees, because the boat is sat there half the year and not being used.
‘If you live on it, great, but in Canada in winter no one lives on the damn boat, you’d freeze to death. In Hawaii, sure, great place to live on the yacht and then charter it to tour groups or dive groups.’
‘We had an eighty-foot luxury yacht, owned by the Kudulov Estate, and the engine was so expensive to fix they were thinking of scrapping it.’
He nodded. ‘Big engine, and complicated as well.’
‘So we took out the engine, sat it in a hole on the back of the beach, and people rent rooms.’
His eyes widened. ‘You rent out rooms … in a yacht on dry land?’
‘Full most of the year, people love it, and no sea sickness.’
He laughed and shook his head. ‘God damn.’
‘But we also bought a sixty-cabin cruiser, was in a bad way, so we lost a shit load of tax on repairing it, the parent company bought as a going concern. This next summer season in Europe it will sail around Corsica, already got a great many bookings for it.’
‘And you built a few nursing homes there…’
‘First one is open, fifty to follow. How do they do it in Canada?’
‘They ain’t like Florida, they’re dreary places, no one wants to go into a nursing home.’
‘How are they funded?’ I asked.
‘The state will pay if you’re dirt poor, but then you get sent to a poor quality federal home. We pay medical insurance all our lives that contributes towards it, or we have to sell the house and pay if the insurance has a shortfall, and most Canadians don’t stop to think about that insurance or nursing home cost till they’re past fifty years old.’
‘In Europe the state pays, and the state pays us for each resident if the resident can’t pay, and the state pays us for the medical treatment and the drugs, as well as a few therapies.
‘Add it all up … and we make a good profit, because we keep the costs down - we have super-sized nursing homes with well-utilised staff and doctors, and we import our own food and drugs at great prices.
‘We have internal cafes, which we supply and run ourselves, we organise the day trips, so we make a good margin on the operating of our nursing homes.
‘And because we have that good margin I can be kind to my residents, perks for them, but the greatest perk is that they have five hundred people to chat to, a swimming pool, cinema, cafes, a pet centre, walks and ponds.
‘And we don’t wait till someone is too far gone, we take them a year or two early, and that way they get used to the place, make friends, and it’s no great shock to the system.’
‘In the States, if you don’t have the money you die alone in pain,’ he stated, shaking his head. ‘At least we have our federal system to help.’
‘In Britain we have a few million little old ladies living alone in a big house costing a fortune, lonely and afraid of crime, yet they wait too long before they do something about that.
‘I’ll offer them a place to go, safe and secure, surrounded by friends. And my place in Corsica is heaven on Earth to the residents, they even get drunk and come in late.’
‘Get drunk?’
‘They’re free to visit the local city till they reach Stage Three, and are immobile or have dementia. We’ll take them if the doctor says that within two years they’ll need daily medical attention.
‘If someone is told that they have three years to live … they come to us. If they get told that within two years the arthritis will put them in a wheelchair … they come to us now, not wait.’
He nodded. ‘That’s the issue in Canada, they often wait till the ambulance takes them. But we do have these assisted-living places, so you go there when you’re unsteady on your feet and have no one to look after you.’
‘That assisted living, that’s what we call Phase One, that need for a special place to live but not yet a nursing home.’
Back up in the room, I packed my case and checked a few items, and I would have the hotel laundry in New York clean a few things. Fortunately, I had my grey suit with me and a spare grey shirt or two.
I called Brad in London after I had finished packing.
‘Ricky, I was going to call, they’re ready for you to do your bit part for the Kudulov movie.’
‘I’ll be in New York tomorrow, same hotel.’
‘They can organise the crew, they did some shots there this week, I’ll update them now.’
‘How much of the film have they shot?’
‘Most all of it, some extra time on Luka’s mother and the miracle baby and his final days. Your guy Ross Daniels let us shoot at the estate, some of the staff playing themselves, and we got insights from the staff – his odd habits.
‘You feature a lot at the end of the movie, him watching you on the TV screen, they already shot his death scene, and they’ll slot in footage from the Katerina Mary film - you rescuing the baby then him seeing it on the TV screen.’
‘I can see the footage?’
‘They’ll have it in New York, yeah.’
‘I have a chat show tomorrow, an hour, then I can film.’
‘You’re all over the news Stateside, some power brokers on the run, some arrested, Wall Street bankers arrested, two Congressmen arrested. FBI say they’ll serve a hundred search warrants.’
‘Tigenheart kept records, in case anyone threatened him, going back forty years.’
‘It has a lot of rich people shitting themselves, trust me. But what the hell happened at his house?’
‘I have no idea,’ I lied. ‘Some squabble.’
‘His house collapsed, and they can’t figure out why.’
‘The hand of God maybe.’
‘He has racked up a few sins, yeah.’
Flying north
At 10am, I set off to the airport after hugs goodbye with the Rasmussens, Decker and myself checking in to the small island airport in good time, soon flying north as a baby started to bawl.
I got up and walked to the lady in question, who yelped when she realised it was me, the baby handed over, and it calmed down immediately, the passengers amazed.
With the baby smiling, I handed it back to the mother, the father asking if I could babysit for him back in New York.
Sat again, I wondered where Tigenheart was right now, and was he in a tough prison or being treated well? I would check, and shout at the FBI if he was shackled to his bed.
A short five hours later, we landed in New York after circling the city, and I got to see many of the famous features as we descended.
At Passport Control I showed my old visa and my faxed invite, my passport stamped again, and we soon met the security men, this time two tall white men in smart suits. In the minibus, which they called “the van”, we sped slowly through the late afternoon traffic to the same hotel.
At reception, the girls were surprised but pleased to see me, the room booked in the name of Rasmussen. I thanked Decker and he would bill Ross Daniels, but I would want him in Los Angeles in a few days.
Up in the room, case opened, my two security men checked the place and then sat outside, and they had a room here anyhow. I called Jenny, and she answered her phone, which was odd because she should have been filming.
‘Hey you,’ she offered.
‘I just got to the same hotel.’
‘I have a day off, I can be there in an hour, a New York hour, so call that two hours.’
‘Studio people may pop in. I have a chat show tomorrow, and then I’m filming my part in the Kudulov movie, a few days.’
‘So you’ll be around a while…’
‘A week maybe, then Los Angeles for a chat show.’
‘See you soon.’
Call ended, I called Rita to tell her I was in the hotel, and they had been to the museum and to St. James, acting like tourists.
My phone trilled straight away, Michelle at the hotel in Corsica. ‘Michelle?’
‘The man that does the big pebbles, his mate does palm trees. Do we need palm trees?’
‘We do, yes, they would make the place look nice. They’re already tall trees?’
‘Yes, like ten feet tall, but he has a few stunted ones as well.’
‘Use your imagination, get a dozen and place them, back of the beach especially, and back of the beach next door in the holiday complex. Order up as many as you need to make the place look nice.’
‘Our beach now has thirty pebbles and people like it, it breaks up the beach, and they dumped twelve so far on the beach below Frances House.’
‘Are the palm trees expensive?’
‘About two thousand Euro each with delivery and planting, but they last for thirty years or more.’
‘Buy as many as you need, it will make the place look nicer. You took a booking for my Sunrise Villa?’
‘Got loads of bookings for it already. Dave had it feature in a magazine for a cruise ships, advert cost about two thousand Euro, but it’s generated hundreds of enquiries.’
‘Tell Dave: good work. Are you sick in the mornings?’
‘It’s passing now, was bad for a while.’
‘Don’t overwork or get stressed, babies can pick up on the stress.’
Call ended, and Ross Daniels arrived. I kicked out a chair for him, coffee made. ‘How’s the family?’
‘The kids have their activities, they’re at that age, and us parents are boring.’
I smiled. ‘I look forwards to two sets of twins.’
‘Good luck,’ he quipped.
‘So how goes the empire?’
‘We’re restructuring the old empire, more cash available for better projects, and your projects are always better than some business that makes us eighteen percent a year steady.’
‘Was that what Kudulov wanted?’ I sipped my coffee.
‘Yeah, the steady twenty percent, low risk. He took risks back in the day, and was ruthless, but he invested wisely and he figured the return first.
‘Your ventures can make two hundred percent a year, so they work better, and there’s no risk – you’re using your fame and selling that fame.’
‘And our hydroelectric projects?’
‘Should make us good money - they need the extra electricity, and they would love to spend less on fuel oil. And we can bend a few rules and laws and serve ourselves some electricity to the nursing homes, which in mainland France would be taxed to fuck.’
‘And my dam?’
‘They’re drilling deep holes in the rocks, metal rods go in then concrete, and the dam is pinned to the walls of the gorge. Two big metal pipes were placed, the water now runs through them, but they have valves to shut it off.
‘Concrete will go around the pipes next, so that the dam can be built without the water splashing it. Those pipes will split into smaller pipes, and the smaller pipes will direct water to the turbines.
‘They did a study, and twenty small turbines is best, not a few traditional large turbines. Hard part will be sealing all the small cracks in the lake rock, and places where water could leak out, and under high pressure it will leak out.
‘So they’ll spray a sealant and then liquid concrete to seal the holes, and hopefully not too much water is lost down the cracks in the rocks.’
‘And fish in there later?’ I posed.
‘It will need dirt dropped in, to make mud at the bottom, and then we find rivers with aquatic plants in, probably from the mainland, and we drop them in, but there is a swamp in Corsica and we can grab the plant life and hope that it takes in the new lake.
‘Only then can we put fish in, and in a few places we’ll need to oxygenate the lake, or it becomes green during a hot summer.’
I nodded. ‘Be nice when ready, boats on the lake. There are large fish in a high lake, that hotel up from the airport...’
‘Not sure what they are, but Corsicans fish for fresh water Sea Bass.’
‘How can a Sea Bass be a fresh water fish?’ I puzzled.
‘They come up the rivers from the sea, migrate around the coast to other rivers, so they can tolerate seawater or fresh water. They grow quite big, three feet long. We can drop them in the lake when ready, but I’ll buy a shit load of fish fry and we’ll feed them for a while.’
‘Do people there eat the Sea Bass?’ I asked.
‘Shit yeah, locals love it, tourist eat it as well.’
‘So we can have a Sea Bass restaurant on the lake,’ I suggested. ‘How’s Ingrid House?’
‘Almost ready, final checks being done, apartments being sold as we speak. Phase One to be populated first as with Frances House.’
‘Those huge pebbles…’
He smiled. ‘On the beach already, makes it look better, breaks it up, and that company is flat out busy supplying you. But other beach hotels have seen the photos and want the pebbles now. Are you doing something with palm trees as well?’
‘Extra palm trees for the back of my beach and my holiday village.’
‘There’re a shit load around the city and in many places on the island, they always make a place look better, more tropical,’ he noted.
‘Those four men that came for me…’
‘The police found an apartment, some fingerprints, some equipment, but no leads as to who was helping them, some faces seen on CCTV at the ferry port, but the men covered their tracks well, knew where the cameras were, paid in cash.’
‘Stanulou is … well organised, yes, very well organised.’
‘Well he has the CIA after him now, and my security team are all acting dumb and pretending that they do little whilst hinting that they know more. We’re getting extra work for them as a result, rich clients.
‘But in Antigua, how did you find out about Tigenheart?’
‘When I shake a person’s hand images pop up, the most relevant aspects of their lives, as well as their intent. If they’re up to no good I see it.’
‘God damn, handy trick that. And the men that burnt?’
‘You’d never believe me if I told you.’
‘It’s you, I’d believe anything.’ He waited.
I studied him for a moment. ‘When I found The Ark, it … had been waiting for me.’
‘Waiting for you?’
I nodded. ‘It contained an … entity, and that entity now lives inside me.’
His eyes widened. ‘Inside … you? Fuck me.’
‘And that entity can incinerate someone.’
‘Shit, the muggers around here are in for a shock! Is it … listening in now?’
‘I would guess so, but I don’t quite know how it all works. It manifests itself as a beautiful naked woman, an image taken from my mind, a childhood fantasy.
‘So it manifests itself as something I can relate to and … something I like and would respond well to. And …it sleeps with me sometimes, it’s started to manifest itself as physically solid and warm, just like a real woman.
‘But I can control when she comes out, I have special gold that has secret energy, and that gold allows her out - and to become solid.’
He sat staring wide-eyed. ‘Does she … ever ask to go shopping without you?’
I smiled widely. ‘No, she has no desires but to assist me with something, something I don’t fully understand yet.’
‘And she sat inside The Ark for three thousand years?’
‘Yes, waiting for me.’
‘That’s another stiff drink I need.’
‘Are you a believer?’ I asked.
‘A strict atheist like you, but … I have to now admit that angels exist and so does God, just that … I don’t agree with there being a god.’
‘That’s OK, because I think he wants us to stand on our own two feet and not sit in church.’
‘You sorted these Vatican shits?’ he asked.
‘I killed a few, and I made many of them commit suicide. I scanned all of the minds of the top people, and we got rid of the bad boys. It’s much better there now.’
He nodded. ‘Lee Tong’s import prices are way too low…’
‘I struck a deal, and I handed him diamonds that we found at the old house in Sweden.’
‘Ah, that would explain it, because for a sharp businessman I figured he was losing money. And if he keeps supplying us at those rates we’ll make a shit load of money.’
‘I handed him a shit load of diamonds, so don’t worry. What’s the schedule at Scorfo? Because it’s not the priority.’
‘They still have around three hundred men, and the apprentices, and some French lads – technical people.
‘They’re working on enough drainage and electricity for thirty nursing homes, but doing it now, and making the promenade and the small town of cafes and shops big enough for ten thousand people.
‘The first two nursing homes are underway, but they want the infrastructure done first, and the small town of beach clubs and shops.’
I nodded at that. ‘The apprentices are being trained well?’
‘They have structured lessons, but mostly they follow around seasoned men and learn as they go. If someone is good at something they get sent to another site to help out.’
